Andrew “Test” Martin – breaking news that ‘Test’ has been found dead on March 13, 2009 at just 33 years of age, only a few days short of his 34th birthday.

Martin’s last stint in the WWE lasted from 2006-2007 but saw him (and others) leave under a cloud after falling foul of the company’s Wellness Policy. Early reports are sketchy and speculative but some are attributing his early death as a result of steroid abuse. More to follow.

Chris Benoit is the latest in a long line of pro wrestlers to meet an untimely demise. That he murdered his wife, Nancy Benoit, and their seven year old son (said to suffer from Fragile-X syndrome) only adds to the pro-wrestling premature-death body count.

Below is a list of dead wrestlers who have died or been killed before the age of 60.

List of dead wrestlers who have died or been killed before the age of 60.

Famous Wrestlers Who Have Died Before the Age of 60 (Since 1985) – Updated August 2010

From the US – When a young couple had failed to return by the following morning, their parents notified police. Christopher Newsom’s body was found near some railroad tracks in East Knoxville that afternoon, but Channon Christian remained missing. A trace run on Channon’s cell phone helped authorities locate her abandoned vehicle the next day, and fingerprints raised from an envelope inside the automobile led police to the residence of 25-year-old Lemaricus Devall ‘Slim’ Davidson, where they discovered Channon’s body wrapped in a blanket.

Carjackers had taken Channon’s vehicle at gunpoint, bound and blindfolded the couple, and transported them to Davidson’s residence. At that location, Christopher was raped prison style (in front of Channon) by multiple assailants, his penis was cut off, he was shot multiple times, his body was set on fire, and, finally, his corpse was taken away and dumped alongside railroad tracks.

With Christopher out of the way, the perpetrators next focused their depravity on Channon. Over the ensuing two days, they beat her, gang-raped her, urinated upon her, cut off one of her breasts (while she was still alive), and poured bleach down her throat. As with Christopher, they finished up by shooting her multiple times and setting her body on fire, but instead of dumping her corpse elsewhere, they wrapped it in a blanket and stuffed it into a trash can which was left inside the residence.

According to reports, they were subjected to lengthy torture in each other’s presence, injected with chemical disinfectants to destroy DNA evidence, then strangled and shot.

According to Snopes, the so-called, Urban Legend reference site, this story did not make national media headlines because it didn’t have the correct combination of factors to warrant such media attention.

The reason the story made it onto Snopes is because of an email circulating on the Internet complaining that the reason the story is being ignored is because it was a white couple who were murdered, claiming that if the couple had been black and the perpetrators white, it would be American national frontpage news for weeks.

Mark M. Alexander, who spent six years in law enforcement, has written a brilliant piece entitled, “Murder in black and white” citing the abject inhumanity of the crimes and asking if the reason the crimes received so little attention was because the murdered couple were white and the five defendants black?

He goes on to point out that in the US “Although blacks represent just 12 percent of the U.S. population, black perpetrators are convicted by their peers in more than half of all murder and manslaughter cases. And, per-capita black-on-white crime is far more prevalent than the inverse.” and to deride the “double standards when it comes to the media’s coverage of interracial crime.”

There’s a touching and very moving video that’s been posted on Youtube simply titled, For Channon Christian.

The evil murdering scum who tortured then snuffed out Channon and Christopher’s lives should be burned at the stake, conscious. No mercy should be afforded them.

I was reading today about how “the father of dismembered British girl Lucie Blackman has criticised Japanese prosecutors after the millionaire property developer suspected of the killing was today acquitted.”

Em, sorry, but isn’t that why he accepted 100 million yen (£467,000)? So that the accused would not be convicted of the crime? It’s called “condolence money” – a Japanese funerary custom where people give “comfort money” as part of the funeral service at the wake. Which of course begs the question, “Why was it given and why was it accepted” if the accused had nothing to do with the crime?

To my way of thinking it’s simply hush money or more accurately, blood money, paid to make the problem go away. Lucie Blackman’s mother, Jane Steare, certainly calls it blood money, accusing Tim Blackman, the father, of colluding with the defence.

Which brings me back to my original point – what’s Tim Blackman whinging about? He got his money.

The self-pitying ramblings of the demented University shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, have been aired on almost every news network across the English-speaking world. Sent to NBC News as Cho readied himself for the second phase of his killing spree, the package contained an 1,800-word manifesto-like statement in which Cho expresses rage, resentment and a desire to get even. He talks at length of his hatred of the wealthy.

“You had 100 billion chances to have avoided today but you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option.
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The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off.

I didn’t have to do this. I could’ve left. I could’ve fled.

You just loved crucifying me. You loved inducing cancer in my head, terrorising my heart and ripping my soul all this time.

For some, perhaps many, there will be a stirring of empathy for what they see as a mirror in their own lives where they see the affluent and untroubled lifestyles of their peers contrasting starkly with lives of struggle and emotional upheaval. Like Cho, they may be bullied and ridiculed by fellow high school students.

Michael Welner, a forensic psychiatrist and ABC news consultant, sums it up: “I promise you the disaffected will watch him the way they watched ‘Natural Born Killers.’ I know. I examine these people,” he said. “I’ve examined mass shooters who have told me they’ve watched it 20 times.”

The most chilling part of Cho’s message indicates he hoped to elicit copycats and was deliberately trying to persuade those who also felt disaffected into following in his bloody footprints;

“You thought it was one pathetic void life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenceless people.”

A gunman has gone on the rampage in a Virginia University killing at least 32 people. The gunman, who witnesses claimed was carrying a handgun and “an ungodly amount of ammunition”, launched two attacks on students at the Virginia Tech University campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. The gunman also was killed, and at least 22 other people were injured.

Meet the Connors, a depraved bunch of animals who collectively set about firebombing a family over a school-bullying row, using petrol poured through the letterbox and set alight.

From left to right; Michael Connor, Jane Connor and Natalie Connor.

Only one of the family who were targeted survived, although she will be scarred for the rest of her life due to the severe injuries sustained during the arson attack.
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The Connors were earlier found guilty of the double murder of Alex and Maureen Cochrane and the grevious bodily harm of Lucy Cochrane as well as other charges.

The killer family was jailed for murdering a “decent and honest” couple in a firebomb attack over a school bullying row.

Michael Connor, 40, was jailed for life with a minimum 32-year sentence before parole, after he poured more than a litre of petrol through the letterbox of the home of Maureen and Alex Cochrane, killing the couple in a 1000 degree centigrade “vortex” of flames.

He had been plied with drink and urged on by his ex-wife, Jane, 40, who kept watch as he carried out the attack at 12.30am on the house in Wythenshawe, South Manchester, on January 12 this year.

Both Connors had been found guilty of the double murders after a six-week trial ending last Friday.

Jane Connor was also jailed for life with a minimum of 32 years by Judge David Maddison.

The daughter, Natalie, 18, who made up “entirely false” claims that the Cochranes’ daughter Lucy, 17, had been bullying her at school – prompting the arson attack – was jailed for 11 years after being convicted of two counts of manslaughter.

Jane Connor clung on to the bar of the dock then clapped her hand to her mouth as the 32-year sentence was handed down.

How satisfying to hear the sentence handed down to Jane Connor caused her some distress. It’s unlikely to be remorse or guilt pricking her conscious but at least there was a visible reaction – her surviving victim has the visible and invisible scars to deal with every day for the rest of her life.

Some of her belongings were found on the banks of the River Don, near Kintore in Aberdeenshire, eleven days later.

She had been strangled.

Sound familiar?

The M.O. or modus operandi (modes of operation) is remarkably similar to the current Suffolk Strangler murders. What is striking is the lengths taken by the murderer to dispose of any forensic evidence.

The Suffolk Strangler murders have gripped the media in recent days. There have been periods when the reporting has been nauseating at times as news channels try to get the scoop with, for example, Sky News following a policeman as he goes to retrieve a training shoe. The scene is repeatedly replayed ad nauseum. Give us a break!

Of course, what struck me was the training shoe the policeman didn’t retrieve. The large, man-sized one that is. Yes, Mr Plod, we know the brief was to find the women’s clothes but for us armchair detectives the presence of a man-sized training shoe may have proved significant since it could have belonged to the serial killer!

Some of the windbags that have been wheeled in front of the camera is frankly embarrassing. Psychologists, various local dignitaries and a whole gamut of other so-called experts blowing hot air and expressing how the ‘community would survive the experience’.

F*ck right off back under the log you crawled out from under is my own personal opinion on most of these blowbags.

Worst of all in my opinion, and rather suprisingly, is David Wilson, professor of criminology (whatever that is) puffing himself up before ruminating about the ‘first murder is key‘ and ‘Why has the killing started now?’ while referring to the recently departed prostitutes.

NEWSFLASH! This serial killer has been on the go for a lot longer than the six weeks since October 30th, 2006, when the unfortunate Tania Nicol disappeared from a dark, dank Ipswich street.

Tania Nicol

Guess what? This man has been killing prostitutes for years and years. He simply got a bit carried away with himself in Ipswich and had a little spree. Since no-one usually gives a stuff when a prostitute disappears he probably thought he could get away with five or so before anyone so much as filled in a missing person’s form. Oops, slight miscalculation. No big deal for this guy.

He’s clearly forensically aware.

He isn’t a thief as told by his leaving his unfortunate victims still wearing their jewelery. That’s a statement. He sees himself as honourable.